Car thief leaves boy to 'bake to death'

A CHILD died yesterday after being abandoned inside a car in blazing sunshine by a thief who was apparently unaware that the two-year-old was strapped in the back.

The boy, named only as Leo, had been left by his mother as she stopped briefly at a supermarket in Sydney, leaving the engine running to keep the air conditioning on. He died from a heart attack brought on by heat stress after being abandoned when the thief dumped the black BMW less than a mile away. It took police two hours to find it.

By the time the vehicle was discovered, Leo was unconscious after being trapped as shade temperatures reached 80F - and considerably higher in the car. An ambulance offer said: "It was like an oven in there. The poor kid wouldn't have stood a chance. He was being baked alive.

"One anonymous phone call to us, that's all it would have taken to save this little boy's life. The police had no idea where to look."

Paramedics treated Leo for five minutes before taking him to Liverpool Hospital, where he was pronounced dead minutes after his arrival. Detectives said that the thief or thieves could face charges of abduction, manslaughter or murder. It is an offence in Australia to leave a child unattended but it was unclear whether the mother would be charged.